As gross as the business is, I do appreciate all the people who blindly agree to all the data mining, privacy violating agreements on their shiny new TVs because they’re a lot of the reason why I can get a 77 inch OLED for so cheap. Manufacturers like LG, Sony and Samsung make some great hardware but their software is worse than Bonzi Buddy.

But yeah, I disable every bit of “smart” and AI functionality (replace it with an Apple TV or something that isn’t loaded with ads and constantly phoning home) and set the location to Albania (which also has the benefit of fully blocking some other “features” from even appearing as an option.

We finally had to break down and accept a smart TV as our last purchase. I didn’t want anything like that on my network. It never gets updates, it never talks to home, it never asks me to agree to anything. The way a display should be.

I do have a few IOT monitors, but they are relegated to the banishment VLAN and are unaware there is anything else on network in the house.

For those who want an dumb TV, you want to shop for a commercial signage display. It’s what a TV should be.

Projectors are also a good option if you want a huge picture with a simple display.